The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for guiding, supporting and organizing an elongated flexible member during or after its installation, and for supporting the elongated member after its installation in order to prevent the flexible member from experiencing an improper bend radius. More specifically, the present invention relates to a member that can be secured to a vertical or horizontal support structure for guiding, organizing and supporting an elongated flexible member so that the elongated flexible member will not be damaged as it is pulled through or along a building structure during its installation and after it has been installed.
The building industry uses a number of flexible members, such as cables, wires and flexible tubes, for providing utilities and services to a building. For example, wires and cables, including inner-duct and fiber optic cables, are used to bring electricity, television, telephone, data, Internet and other well-known services into a building or other known location. Additionally, gas, water and other types of fluids can be brought into the building using flexible tubes. These buildings can include residential, commercial and industrial structures.
During the construction of these buildings, the wires and other flexible members are pulled and positioned along or within the walls, ceilings and/or floors before the framing or wall supports are covered by drywall or other similar wallboards. Many times, the flexible members must be pulled around multiple corners during their installation. This can require that a workman be positioned at each and every corner to feed the flexible member around the corner. This is often impractical because of the number of people on an installation crew can be less than the number of corners that one of these flexible members will extend around. When personnel are not available to be at each corner (pull point), the person installing the flexible member must pull an extra length of the flexible member at the corner and form figure-eight""s on the floor with the extra flexible member. After enough is gathered, the person will pull the gathered length along the path to the intended location or to one side of another corner and repeat the procedure. If the amount gathered at a corner is not enough to reach the intended point, the person must again go back to the first corner, gather more of the flexible member and repeat the time consuming and laborious process. This must be done for every corner that the flexible member is being positioned around. As a result, each time the person installing the flexible member needs to move the wire, he must go back to each and every corner and gather an amount of the flexible member there before pulling it to the next corner. This is a very time consuming process that can significantly delay the amount of time needed to wire or install the flexible members.
If an installer attempts to pull the flexible member an extended distance and/or around a corner, the flexible member will likely be physically damaged. Such a damaged flexible member could have kinks, nicks and/or cuts in its outer jacket and its inner core, along with internal damage caused by over stretching the core of the flexible member beyond an allowable limit during the application of the excessive tension and pull forces needed to pull the cable along the excessive length. Therefore, it follows that the more corners that the flexible member is extended over and the longer the distance of the pull, the more difficult it will be to pull the elongated member, the greater the magnitude of the force needed to pull the flexible member and the more damage that can result during the pull.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,994 to Logsdon discloses a plumbing pipe hanger that is secured to a wall by a nail inserted into an opening in the hanger. The pipe hanger receives and supports rigid plumbing pipes in an opening that has a slightly larger diameter than the pipe that it receives. This hanger is used in place of xe2x80x9cplumber""s tape.xe2x80x9d This hanger is only used to support rigid pipes. As a result, its interior wall has a plurality of projections that extend toward the center of the opening. These projections can trap and damage cables or wires positioned within or pulled through the pipe hanger. Additionally, the pipe hanger includes sharp lateral edges that would not permit a wire, cable or other flexible member to be pulled through it without possibly being damaged. Additionally, it is unlikely that the pipe hanger would be approved under proposed U.L. Standard #2239 4.1.1 that requires rounded and smooth surfaces on hardware in contact with an insulated conductor. As is well known, damage to a wire or flexible gas line can jeopardize lives because of the real potential for electrocution, fires or asphyxiation. Additionally, damage to these flexible members can ruin their performance and require that the entire length be rerun, thereby increasing the time and cost of the job.
Additionally, newly announced and existing standards for minimum installation requirements must be adhered to when any or all of the above mentioned flexible members are pulled and/or installed along a portion of a structure or building. One example of the newly announced standards in the telecommunication installation industry resides in TIA/EIA-568-B.1. This standard sets forth a minimum bend radius for a four-pair UTP cable under no-load conditions. This bend radius standard impacts small commercial and residential CAT 5 or CAT 6 installations due to a lack of appropriate hardware to facilitate compliance with the required minimum bend radii. For example, the pipe hanger disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,994, conventional J-hooks and bridle rings do not provide the support needed to achieve and maintain the flexible members at these minimum bend radii. Similarly, they cannot provide effective, practical support to most high performance telecommunication cables at their load and no-load minimum bend radius requirements and, as a result, do not provide effective cable management. As is known in the art, tighter bends in cables (minimum bend radii violations) can change the relationship of the pairs in the cable, degrade the transmission properties of the cable, reduce network performance and make it difficult to isolate the source of a problem within the network. These and other prior art hangers do not include members that can guide and support flexible members so that existing, as well as proposed, standards are met. Additionally, the prior art devices cannot be easily and quickly adapted for meeting different standards in multiple regions. For example, a hanger that may be used in one region may not be useable in another region because it cannot be easily and acceptably altered to meet the standards of this second region.
A need exists in the art for members that individually or as part of a system provide a controlled pull path that is free of obstructions, that supports the flexible member as it is pulled and after it is installed, that reduces the amount of needed pull force so that a smooth pull is achieved and that meet codes.
An aspect of the present invention relates to a member that alone or as part of a system guides and supports elongated flexible members such as wires, cables and other flexible lines that can introduce services and utilities into a residential, commercial, industrial or similar building structures. The guiding and support members according to the present invention receive and support at least one of the elongated flexible members so that it can be pulled around a corner and along a length without being damaged. Additionally, the guiding and support members can be used when the elongated member is only being pulled in a straight run or to organize elongated members that have already been run. Furthermore, the members can be used to support the flexible members after they have been hung in order to keep them at a required bend radius.
Each guide and support member can receive one or more wires within a central aperture so that the wire can be easily, quickly and safely pulled around corners and along the length of a wall, ceiling, cabinet or floor. The aperture in each guide and support member extends between first and second outer walls and has a smooth, rounded, convex surface located between these walls. The rounded profile of the convex surface permits wires and/or other flexible members to easily slide through it. These guides and support members also organize the wires, cables, etc.
A guide and support member according to the present invention (referred to as a xe2x80x9cguidexe2x80x9d) comprises first and second side faces and at least one aperture extending between the first and second side faces. The aperture is defined by an inner circumferential surface extending between the faces and forming a passageway for receiving the at least one elongated member. The inner circumferential surface is convexly curved in a direction of the center of the aperture. The member also includes at least one elongated foot that extends along a first portion of an outer sidewall for orienting and positioning the guide on a structure.
Another aspect of the present invention includes a method for guiding an elongated flexible member around a corner. The method includes the steps of securing a guiding and supporting member proximate a corner; introducing the elongated member into an aperture in the guiding and supporting member and pulling the elongated member around the corner. It is possible that the aperture includes a groove with an open top, a closed opening with a hinged entry path or an opening that is only open in the direction that the elongated member is being fed.
An additional aspect of the present invention relates to another guiding and supporting member (referred to as a xe2x80x9csweepxe2x80x9d) that can be used with the other guide and support members to maintain a flexible member at a predetermined bend radius. The sweep comprises a first end that can be securely retained within an aperture of the guide and support member. The first end includes a first circumferential flange, a second circumferential flange and seat that extends between the flanges for receiving an inner surface of the aperture when the at least one end is retained within the aperture. In another embodiment, the sweep can include a set of spaced flanges at about its longitudinal midpoint for receiving an inner surface of the aperture.
The guide and the sweep according to the present invention permit flexible members, such as cables, to be pulled along a pathway using a minimum amount of force and causing a minimum amount of tension within the flexible member. As a result, these flexible members can be pulled at tension levels below the maximum permitted by building codes or recommended within the industry. One reason for this reduction in longitudinal stresses and tension within the longitudinal members is the reduction of friction along the pulling pathway. Unlike conventional conduits and cable trays, the guides and the sweeps reduce the amount of surface area in contact with the flexible member while maintaining recommended bending radii and providing a required amount of support during and after installation. The less surface area in contact with the flexible member, the less friction that will be applied to the flexible member and the less tension needed in the flexible member to overcome the friction and pull it along the pathway. Additionally, the support provided by the sweeps and the guide and support members eliminates sharp bends in the pathway and prevents kinks from forming along the pathway.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a guide and support member (referred to as a xe2x80x9ccradlexe2x80x9d) that can work with either or both the guide and sweep to guide, support and organize one or more flexible members while maintaining a prescribed minimum bend radius. The cradle includes a collar between its ends that can be securely retained within an aperture of a guide. The collar includes a first circumferential flange, a second circumferential flange and seat that extends between the flanges for receiving an inner surface of the aperture when the collar is retained within the aperture.